Apparatus for drying and annealing wire



Dec. 13, 1955 J v OGRADY APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND ANNEALING WIRE Filed Oct. 3, 1950 INVENTOR JOSEPH v. (gum B9 4 ATTORNEY United States Patent APPARATUS FOR DlletlllgaG AND ANNEALING Joseph V. OGrady, West Caldwell, N. J., assignor to Syncro Machine Company, Perth Amboy, N. 1., a corporation of New Jersey Application October 3, 1950, Serial No. 188,247

1 Claim. (Cl. 148--10) This invention relates to an electrical apparatus for use in continuous annealing of wire and in particular it relates to the sequence of operations involved in heating a wire continuously, quenching a length of the wire and subsequently drying it prior to spooling the product.

The nature of the operation involving wire drawing and the fabrication of the finished Wire practically demands continuous operation in which the raw material is fed into one end of the machine and appears continuously as product at the other. When wire is drawn through a die, it is subjected to a certain amount of working and, to restore the physical properties, an annealing operation in the process is needed. Annealing can be accomplished by passing a wire through a furnace to heat a given length thereof and subsequently quench the wire. To avoid corrosion problems incident to the quenching operation it has been found that a drying step is highly desirable as the mechanical operations call for spooling the wire substantially immediately after the quenching. Generally, and particularly where relatively fine wire is being dried, the product will not have suflicient thermal capacity to retain therein enough heat following the quenching to dry the wire prior to its being spooled. Accordingly, it is a fundamental object of the instant invention to provide a wire drawing operation which allows for annealing, quenching and drying a wire prior to storing it on a spool.

It is a second object of the instant invention to provide an apparatus by which the heating and drying of the wire is accomplished electrically.

It is a third object of the instant. invention to provide an apparatus by which the heating of a wire in a drawing operation can be accomplished electrically by making the wire itself a part of the circuit.

It is a further object of the instant invention to provide a pulley construction for use in a wire drying operation adaptable for making electrical contact with a wire thereby to accomplish the desired heating.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises a wire drawing and heating apparatus involving spooling mechanism and an electric circuit for accomplishing the desired heating, said apparatus including an arrangement of pulleys for guiding the wire from the final drawing capstan to an annealing zone, Where it is guided over a second electrical pulley into an annealing unit and therefrom into a quenching bath, from which it is passed over the first mentioned pulley, where it is subjected to further electrical heating for drying purposes and then is guided to a finished spooling arrangement. Thus the invention comprises an apparatus involving the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts involved in the arrangement whereby the wire is guided through its cycle of treatment and subjected to the desired drying operation following the annealing.

In the drawings, a diagrammatic layout of the apparatus is shown in:

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Figure 1 where the course traveled by a wire in passing through apparatus and the cycle of treatments is shown; and

Figure 2 is a cross section through the electrically conducting pulley showing the means for bringing power thereto from the source.

Referring now to Figure 1, 10 represents a wire passing through a die 11, where it is drawn down to the desired diameter, from which it passes around capstan 12, around tensioning pulleys 13 and 14, back around capstan 12 and then to pulley assembly 15. The purpose of this arrangement is to provide a means for keeping the wire taut. The wire actually passes seriatim around pulley 60 of pulley assembly 15, which is electrically conducting to accomplish a moderate preliminary heating of the wire, and therefrom it passes into annealing furnace 16, wherein the wire first passes over pulley 17, then around pulley 18, past 19, which serves to keep it taut, and then over electrically conducting pulley 20, which serves as one terminal of the heating circuit for the Wire in the annealing operation. From the pulley 20, the wire passes through annealing chamber 21 and around the second electrified pulley 22, which serves as the second electrical terminal in the annealing circuit, so that the segment of wire 20 to 22 is a conductive part of electric circuit between the contact points and, while it is in contact with those two points, the wire is conducting electricity and being heated.

Upon leaving pulley 22, the wire passes through the guide conduit 23, which is a continuation of the annealing chamber 21, into the quenching bath. In the bath itpasses over pulley 24 and out through orifice 25, to the drying chamber of the furnace. In passing from the orifice 25 over pulley 27, up out of the chamber the wire is cooled to the temperature of the quenching bath and then passed up to pulley 28, back around pulley 61 of pulley assembly 15, from which it passes over pulley 29 to the spooler 30, where it is packaged for eventual shipment upon completion of a spool. It is apparent that the spooler' 30, guide pulleys 12, 13, 14 and 15, die 11, and pulley 29 can be mounted on the same base.

The heating operations for the wire are accomplished by the electrical circuit which draws power from a source connected to the primary 30 of a transformer having the secondary coil 31. One lead 32 from the secondary is connected to the pulley 20, which is mounted so as to be electrically insulated from its base, to form the first electrical contact for the wire in the annealing chamber. The other side 33 of the secondary coil 31 is brought to the second pulley 22 in the annealing furnace, which serves as the other contact for the electric heating circuit of the wire in the annealing zone.

A controlled drying of the wire is accomplished at the pulley 15 where a branch lead 34 from the secondary coil of the transformer is brought from one point on pulley 15 through the potentiometer 35. The preheating circuit is made through lead 36 which is brought to the pulley 15 and to the other side of the secondary of the transformer through the wire and pulley 20.

The structure of the pulley 15 will be understood more clearly by reference to Figure 2 where shaft 50 is shown having a flange 51, an insulating flange 52, an end flange 53 and an end bolt 54 to hold the entire assembly in place.

Separated from flange 51 by insulation is slip ring 55 and adjacent thereto a second insulator 56 which holds a second slip ring 57 separated from 55. The two slip ring structures are connected by wires 58 and 59 to pulleys 60 and 61, respectively, which are electrically insulated from each other and the shaft by insulating material 62. Leads 34 and 36 from the secondary circuit are brought to contact" with brushes 63 and 64 to provide the desired electrical circuit for giving the wire the desired amount of preliminary preheating as it passes over one side of the said circuit prior to entering the annealing zone and overthe other side thereof for drying thereof as it" leaves' the 'annealing and quenching operation.

Detailed exposition of the operation of the'apparatus is unnecessary in view of the fact that from the: explana*- tion of the structure and arrangement'of parts, the operation is clear. The several pulleys 18 and 29 are mounted hingedly to permit keeping the wire'taut through the various heating cycles by the application to it of appropriate tension as it expands and contracts in the heating" and cooling. The preferred. degree of control of temperature is accomplished of course-by variation of the that during its passage therethrough the wire is immersed" in an inert atmosphere of vapors from the quenching liquid.

Upon review, it will be seen that thewirewin' passing progressively over the pulleys shown is electrically divided into three sections, the first of which is subjected 'to preheating, the second of which to further heating to annealing temperature, and the third of which after quenching is heated to a dry temperature. These three wire sections are supplied with'electrical currents from three parallel circuits energized from the secondary of the power supply transformer. The preheating section. extends between pulley 60 and pulley 201 Current is supplied to pulley 60 by wire 36'from one side of the secondary and to pulley 20 by wire 32 from the other sideof the secondary. The section which is heated to annealing temperature extends between pulleys 20 and 22. Current is supplied to pulley 22 through wire 33' from one side of the current sourceand again to pulley 20 through wire 32 from the other sideof the current source. The third section of the wire, that is the drying section, extends from pulley 22 to pulley 61. Current is supplied to pulley 22 from one side of the current source through the wire 33 andto-pulley 61 from the other side of the current source through wires 32 and 34.

Having described my invention and the operation thereof, it will be understood that the single embodiment shown is intended to serve as an operative and illustrative example and that variations of the invention withinthe spirit andscope thereof may be made.

What is claimed is:

In a machine for continuously annealing wire, the combination comprising a plurality of conductive rotatable pulleys over which a wire to be annealed is passed progressively, an annealing chamber positioned between a pair of said pulleys so that the section ofwire between said pair of pulleys passes through said chamber, a quenching chamber into which the-wire passes from the annealing chamber, a source of electrical current, and parallel circuit connections from said source to said pulleysin three. pairs including saidmentioned pair, to separately heat three sections of said wire, one prior to reaching the annealing chamber, one in the annealing chamber, and one after leaving said annealing chamber, whereby the wire is preheated in said first section, heated to. annealing temperature in said second section and dried in said third section.

References-Cited in the file of this'patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 316,139 Goldberg Apr. 21, 1885 1,043,089 Gibbs Nov. 5, 1912 1,360,686 Robinson Nov. 30, 1920 1,386,645 Moore Aug. 21, 1921 1,476,941 Young et a1. Dec. 11, 1923 1,765,520 Adams June 24, 1930 1,937,420 Wood et al. Nov. 28, 1933 1,993,400. Convers Mar. 5, 1935 2,176,582 Cook Oct. 17, 1939 2,315,189 Cook Mar. 30, 1943 2,457,870 Cook Jan. 4, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 656,591 Great Britain Aug. 29, 1951 

